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Supply chain social responsibility
Our supply chain principles
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From its inception almost a century ago, IBM has been based on a set of fundamental values. IBM's values shape and define our company and permeate all of our relationships--between our company's people and our shareholders, our clients, the communities where our people live and work, and among our network of suppliers.
Within our supply chain relationships, we know that our company's sizable purchasing power is a unique resource that we must manage responsibly, and we do. IBM spends nearly $2 billion a year with diverse suppliers, for example, greater than any other technology company. Yet more than managing our spend, we have a responsibility to hold ourselves--and our suppliers--to high standards of behavior. This means complying with all applicable laws and regulations. But it goes beyond that. It entails a strong commitment to work with suppliers to encourage sound practices and develop sound global markets.
We have always maintained an open channel of communications with suppliers to set expectations. Today, in an increasingly interconnected world market, the expectations for all players across the entire supply chain go up. Therefore, we are both reaffirming our existing policies and instituting some new practices, which are spelled out in the following Supplier Conduct Principles. These principles establish for our suppliers the minimum standards we expect from them as a condition of doing business with IBM. IBM will have the right to take action with suppliers that fail to comply with these principles, including terminating our relationship with them.
Our goal is to work with our suppliers to foster full compliance as they, in turn, apply these to their extended sources of supply engaged in the production of goods and services for IBM. We will consider these principles and adherence to them in our selection process and will seek ongoing compliance by actively monitoring performance.
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No company is an island. We know this very well when it comes to business strategy--the push for open standards is at the heart of on demand--but it applies equally to areas of social responsibility. Business leadership in today's interconnected global marketplace means, as a practical matter, finding a way to influence all supply chains--not just your own--to adopt a common set of standards for socially responsible behavior.
That's why IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell, and a number of large electronics manufacturing service providers have released an Electronic Industry Supplier Code of Conduct. This paves the way for a standards-based approach to monitoring suppliers' compliance across several areas of social responsibility, including labor, health, safety, and environmental impact.
This initiative is about working with suppliers to foster a common understanding of what socially responsible business practices are, and then aligning the interests of all constituencies around industry standards to encourage sound practices of social responsibility in the global marketplace. As a participant in the industry group that developed the code, we want our suppliers to know that IBM will accept this code as an alternate to IBM's existing Supplier Conduct Principles.
IBM will continue to implement its Supplier Conduct Principles due to the global breath of our supply chain and the desire to facilitate the rapid deployment of social responsibility across our vast supply network.
For more information, please contact:
John Gabriel, manager of supply chain social responsibility
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